AT&T Gets Sued Over Words in Ads

Here's another one of those ridiculous lawsuits over a company using regular English words that just so happen to be the name of some guys book.

Kembrew McLeod, assistant professor of communications studies at the University of Iowa, believes that "freedom of expression" � or at least the phrase � belongs to him, because he registered it as a trademark in 1998. And now that AT&T is using the phrase in some print ads, he wants the company to stop.

Yesterday, Mr. McLeod sent AT&T a "cease and desist" letter, asserting that consumers might infer a link between the company and his anti-corporate publication, "Freedom of Expression." The bigger idea behind his legal action, he said, is to object to corporate power over words, speech and even ideas.

"I do want to register my genuine protest that a big company that really doesn't represent freedom of expression is trying to appropriate this phrase," he said.